It’s been almost 7 months since anybody on the AfricanSurfer expedition had a paycheck. And then… a few days ago – this comment from Stones’ brother on africansurfer.com in reply to our “Abidjan nights” post: “Listen guys, Stone is never going to pull a pretty chick like that looking like he has just walked out [...]

Cote d’Ivoire’s biggest name in reggae, Alpha Blondy, sings: “Assinie Mafia… ee-ya, ee-ya, eeyayeeyayeeyaaa”. And first thing every Saturday morning, much of Abidjans’ surfing community is singing much the same song. Assinie is an area about an hour east of Abidjan by car over a maze of waterways, a few hills and a couple of [...]

It is reputed that Abidjan, in Cote D’Ivoire, has the best nightlife in West Africa. Being African travelers of some repute we decided to see whether this rumour had any substance. With the able assistance of our host Nico Poyade; Nico getting into the groove we embarked on a comprehensive clubbing route, covering most of [...]

When you go north from Cape Town on a surftrip up the west coast of Africa, you should not expect to encounter much in the way of surfshops en route. Rod has a backroom with some essentials in Swakopmund (Namibia), and the Black Star surfshop in Busua (Ghana) is very rad and has the basics [...]

A few months ago while in Cameroon, we met Peggy – the only local surfer in the village of Kribi. Peggy was such an inspiring and passionate surfer, we wrote a post and made a short video of him – including a plea for an unwanted secondhand board to replace the leashless half-board he was [...]

No blasphemy intended here but it’s uncanny how many people in West Africa think Lurks looks exactly like Jesus. The examples are many: Every restaurant we go to someone in the staff will inevitably approach one of the others at the table and say “your friend looks like JESUS!” in hushed tones. When we walked [...]

If you leave Abidjan on the coastal road towards Liberia, take a left 215km on at the barrel in the middle of the road, a right just before the Total and an extreme left where the dirt track forks 3 ways… then you will arrive at a small village and a fun rocky right-hand surf [...]

If you leave Abidjan on the coastal road towards Liberia, take a left 215km on at the barrel in the middle of the road, a right just before the Total and an extreme left where the dirt track forks 3 ways… then you will arrive at a small village and a fun rocky righthand surfspot. [...]

For the past week or so we’ve been tracking a swell up the western half of the Cote d’Ivoire coastline. We’re now back in Abidjan, brimming from ear to ear after possibly one of the coolest week’s of the trip so far. Here are a few reasons why we’re stoked on this country: 1) The [...]

Right at the beginning of our trip, at a filling station on a dry, dusty road somewhere between Swakopmund and Etosha in Namibia, we bumped into a solo overlander from Norway. We were heading in a similar direction so we courteously swapped details and went our seperate ways. Fastforward approximately 5-and-a-half months and of all [...]

Can you spot AfricanSurfer Tim in the following pic snapped at a pretty damn perfect Cote d’Ivoire beachbreak? Now get back to work and try not to think too much about what you would be doing on this wave!

Our original route did not include Cote d’Ivoire because the report we had was that it was still too unstable. Our friend Pierre Nicoud in Cameroon, however, convinced us that we had to visit – he grew up in Abidjan. Pierre, in Cameroon, raving about the waves in Ivory Coast – how right he was… [...]

Most countries we go to we only get a visa valid for a month. Every now and then we push the restriction right to the limit – Ghana was one such country. We were actually a day late to the border but Lurks used some “creative accounting” with the border guard and they bought it. [...]

At the end of last week we celebrated the fact that we’ve now been on the road for six months. According to our original schedule we should be in Europe already, but i think all of us agree that we wouldn’t trade the experiences we’ve had for anything. We celebrated the occasion with a crew [...]

We make a habit of visiting the South African embassy in each major city we go through – mainly because the embassy staff are usually such legends – but also because good things tend to happen when Saffas get together overseas. For example: a week ago we headed to the embassy in Accra only to [...]

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Africa + Surfing = AfricanSurfer

The original trip

March 2007: Tim, Lurks & Stone mission north from Cape Town up the west coast of Africa, in search of good waves and good times.
Their vehicle: a trusty 1981 Landcruiser named Mzee Kobe (The Old Tortoise).
Their final destination: London... finally arriving almost a year behind schedule in latter 2008!